


Botched

by Closeted_Calliope



Category: Trolls (Movies 2016 2020)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Haircuts, Hurt/Comfort, Intimacy, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Pet Names, barb is emotionally attatched to her hair ok, botched haircut, intimacy through hair touching', its like a whole troll thing like hair is so important to them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28639716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Closeted_Calliope/pseuds/Closeted_Calliope
Summary: Poppy gets worried when Barb is late arriving to her pod for their date, but when she finally arrives, incredibly distraught with an old blanket covering her head, Poppy thinks that the night is better spent doing other things.(AKA Barb screws up her own haircut and Poppy helps calm her down)
Relationships: Queen Barb/Queen Poppy (Trolls)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Botched

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to Comrade from the gay trolls server, she drew an art and i needed to make it a fic. Anyway, sad Barb hours, babes >:)

Poppy eyed the clock on her wall anxiously from her couch. 

It was 8:13. Barb was supposed to be here over an hour ago. 

She sighed and leaned back into the couch, forcing herself to relax. _She's just running late,_ she tried to convince herself. _Volcano Rock City is a long ways away, she's probably just had some trouble with her critterbike. Yeah, that's it! I'm sure she's totally fine-_

Thunder cracked outside, and Poppy could hear the rustling of rain starting to downpour. 

Her heart pounded with unease, any thoughts of comfort dissipating into thin air.

She wrung out her hands as she stared at the door, waiting for Barb to burst in with a grin and possibly a guitar in hand. 

One minute turned to two.

Two minutes turned to five.

Five minutes turned to eight, and Poppy forced herself to stand up. 

Cold water. Yeah, maybe splashing some cold water on her face would help ease her nerves.

She shuffled her way to the bathroom, her feet made of concrete. She flipped on the faucet and ran hands through the icy water before gently spattering water up into her face. As she wiped the excess off, she couldn't help but stare at herself in the mirror.

Aside from a few drops of water dripping down her face, all she could see was the concern that plastered every square inch of her face. Her eyes were hard with apprehension, and her mouth was pressed into a thin firm line, unlike the smiles she was usually found to be sporting. 

Poppy buried her face into her hands with a groan, ignoring another crash of thunder. She knew that worrying wasn't going to make Barb get here faster, but she also didn't know what else to do other than wait and worry. 

There was a knock at the door. 

Poppy's head snapped up and was racing for the door before she could fully comprehend what had happened. Her hand clutched around the front doorknob and she jerked it open.

Barb stood there, sniffling, as her mascara ran rivers down her cheeks, though it didn't seem to be from the rain. Curiously enough, she had wrapped an old threadbare blanket, looking older than the two of them combined, over her head as she stood shivering in the doorway.

"H-Hey," She choked out.

"Barb! Oh my goodness, come in, come in!" Poppy grabbed her girlfriend by the hand and yanked her inside. As Barb stumbled in, refusing to loosen her grip on her blanket, Poppy grabbed hold of her shoulders and began blurting out all the questions that had built up inside of her for over an hour. "Barb! Im so glad that you got here safely! What happened? Why did you get here so late? Not that I'm mad or anything, of course, I just got so worried! Did you get lost on the way here? Was it something with your critterbike? Or maybe-"

Poppy cut herself off as she noticed Barb looking away from her, trying and failing to keep herself from crying. 

"Barb?" Poppy needed to take a different approach to this, so she released her iron grip of Barb's shoulders and gently moving them to one of her hands. "Sweetie, what happened?"

Barb shook her head. "It's stupid...." She mumbled, turning her head away.

"I can promise you it's not. When have I ever thought that something you did was stupid?

"When I tried to take over all of music and turn you into a rock zombie," Barb laughed humorlessly.

Poppy hummed as she pulled her girlfriend closer, "Ok but if you hadn't done that, I wouldn't be dating the most handsome rock troll in all of trolldom."

Stammering, Barb's face flushed a bright red, and Poppy knew she'd won. 

"Please, Barb? I promise it'll be ok, I just need to know what's wrong so I can help!"

Managing to compose herself, Barb quietly asked, "Promise you won't make fun of me?"

Poppy was almost offended that she even needed to ask that, but she kept it to herself as she assured her, "I promise."

Barb seemed to believe her words, for she shakily reached up for the blanket and tore it off. 

Upon seeing what was underneath, Poppy's hands shot straight for her mouth with a gasp.

Barb's mohawk was a complete mess. There were large chunks of hair completely chopped out, like someone had cut them out without any rhyme or reason. And some of the chunks were cut in such away that it messed with the way the hair lied naturally, causing it to stick up in weird places. 

This wouldn't have been as hard on Barb if it were just a haircut to her. But hair was something taken very seriously by the trolls; it was like a fifth limb to many, it made up a good amount of their architectural materials, it was where they sheltered their youth before the eggs were ready to hatch. And on someone as important to society as Queen Barb, a horrible haircut was not a good look to be sporting. 

"Oh, Barb...."

"I know it's bad, ok?!?!" Barb snapped, glaring at Poppy before softening seeing the pain in Poppy's eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. I just- AUGH!!!" She stomped over to the couch in frustration and plopped down, burying her face in her hands. "I'm such an idiot," She grumbled.

"No, no, no, no, you're not an idiot!" Poppy attempted to encourage her, as she sat down beside Barb and rested a gentle hand on her back. "Just- Why don't you tell me about how this all happened?"

Barb sniffled, and leaned back into Poppy's couch with a sigh, trying to steady her breath. 

"Ok," She started, "so i was getting ready for our date earlier, and when I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed how long my hair'd gotten. And it's been forever since I really got to spend time with you, because of how busy we've both been with, you know-"

"Queen stuff," Poppy finished for her.

"Yeah, queen stuff. So I really wanted to make myself look really nice for you tonight, like make it special and stuff. But i realized there really wasn't enough time to go get an appointment to get it done, and the barbers' are usually pretty booked ahead of time, so walking in wasn't a great option, so then I had the bright idea of doing it myself." Tears began to spill over her eyes as she continued, "I mean, after all, how hard could it be? And I just got so embarrassed that I almost didn't want to come, I didn't want you to see me like this..."

"Oh, baby..." Poppy wrapped her arms around Barb and allowed her to just sob into her shoulder, not caring about the mascara and eyeshadow staining her dress. "Shhh, hey, it's gonna be ok," She murmured quietly, rubbing circles into Barb's back. 

The two sat like that for a while, Poppy whispering soothing words to Barb as she cried quietly into her shoulder. Eventually, Barb's sobs died down, becoming little more than a few stray tears and sniffling. 

"You must be really embarrassed to be dating someone that can't even cut her own hair," Barb muttered under her breath, hoping Poppy wouldn't hear.

Poppy did hear. "Don't say that, Barb!" She cried, pulling out of her hug and cupping her face with her hand. "I'd never be embarrassed to be dating you! You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I wouldn't trade you for the world."

Barb's tear-filled eyes stared right back into Poppy's, unable to find a hint of deception. Still, she asked, "You really mean it?" as she grabbed the hand Poppy cupped around her face in both of hers.

"Of course! Besides, your haircut isn't that bad."

"You're just saying it to make me feel better."

"No, really!" She insisted, brushing away a few tears from Barb's cheek with her thumb. "I think it looks nice, Barb."

Barb didn't answer, just burying her face into Poppy's hand. 

Poppy sighed, taking another good look at Barb's hair. 

She wasn't completely dishonest about the haircut; it looked a lot worse than it actually seemed to be. Sure, there were large and noticeable chunks cut out, but she was sure it wouldn't look so bad if Barb just had someone-

Poppy was struck with an idea. 

"Ok so good new, bad news," She started, "I think I know a way to fix your hair, but it's gonna involve cutting more."

Barb pulled away from Poppy. "Nuh uh, no way, there is no way I'm gonna bring scissors anywhere near-"

"I never said it was you who would be cutting it, sweetie."

Barb paused. The idea of letting someone cut her hair, especially someone that wasn't a professional, considering how that went for her, was absolutely horrifying. But this was Poppy. She'd never do anything this ambitious if she knew she couldn't handle it. Well, okay, she might, but something told Barb that this was an area Poppy wouldn't cross into unless she had some sort of idea of what she was doing. 

She scoffed, trying to seem nonchalant. "Fine, I mean, you can't make it look any worse than it already does."

Poppy gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile, hopping up from the couch and running off to search in of her supplies. It thankfully didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for: her sharpest pair of scissors and some hair gel.

Barb raised an eyebrow seeing the gel upon Poppy's return, to which Poppy pleaded, "Just trust me here, ok? Also, sit on the floor, it'll give me a better view of your head."

Barb reluctantly complied, sliding off the couch so her back was against the base border. Poppy positioned herself behind barb and pulled a comb out of her own hair, running it through Barb's hair a few times. 

"Are you sure you're ok with this Barb? Because I don't want you to feel pressured to go through with this if you don't want to-"

"Nah, it's ok," Barb assured her. "I trust you."

Poppy grinned, her heart involuntarily swelling, and she carefully and cautiously took the first cut.

Barb sat there, trying to remain calm ash she listened to Poppy snip away. She forced herself to take a deep breath. She knew Poppy wouldn't make her hair worse on purpose, she really did, and she had enough faith in her skills in general to trust she wouldn't make it look bad accidentally either, but the worrisome thoughts creeped in regardless. Barb did her best to push those thoughts away and sit still though.

The haircut seemed to take forever, but was closer to about 15 minutes. Poppy hummed a little as she worked, going slowly to prevent making any further mistakes. They sat in silence, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was actually quite soothing, Barb found, even as she struggled not to flinch with each snip of the scissors. There was just something about Poppy touching and running her fingers through her hands that sent a wave of relaxation through Barb's whole body.

It wasn't long before Poppy finally put down her scissors, rubbed some hair gel into her hands, and ran it through Barb's hair carefully. After a quick minute of styling, she announced, "Done!"

"R-Really?"

Poppy nodded as she slipped off the couch and held her hand out for Barb to take. "You wanna go take a look?"

Barb started to reach out to Poppy, hesitating at the last moment. She looked up at her girlfriend. "What if I don't like it?"

"Hmmm..." Poppy thought about it for a moment. "Well, you're very much entitled to your opinion, but I think that at the very least, your hair looks better than when you first came over."

Barb nodded, taking this information in with a gulp, before carefully taking Poppy's hand. 

Poppy pulled her up to here feet and led her to the bathroom. Before Barb could enter, Poppy covered her eyes from behind her. 

Barb couldn't help snorting with laughter, "You dork," but she didn't remove her hands.

The two shuffled into the bathroom, positioning Barb in front of the mirror. "Are you ready?"

Barb sighed, "As I'll ever be..." and Poppy removed her hands.

Barb found herself unable to do anything but stare.

It was shorter, a lot shorter than she'd had in years, since she was a kid maybe, but it didn't..... look bad? It was too short to stand up on its own or to be teased into a better shape, so hair gel was a must, but there also wasn't so much gel that it made her hair look crunchy and weird.

It certainly was different.

But it was a nice different. 

Poppy, worried that Barb's silence meant she wasn't a fan, began to ramble, "I know it's not the same as it was before, obviously, because there's less hair to work with, but I did do my best to make it look more even without compromising your personal style, because I know how much that means to you, and I won't be mad if you don't like it, I really won't, I just wanted to let you know that I did the best I could and-"

"I really like it."

Poppy was stunned. "Y-You do!?"

Barb nodded, a huge grin crawling onto her face. "Yeah, you did a really good job! It's shorter than I'm used to, but I think you did a really good job, babe." 

Poppy squealed with joy as she threw her arms Barb, who picked her up and spun her around, chuckling.

Then it hit Barb as soon as she put Poppy down. "Oh shoot!"

"What, what is it?"

"Ugh, I totally forgot we had dinner plans, we totally missed our reservation!" Barb facepalmed herself. "Gosh, I'm really sorry, Poppy, I got so caught up in my own hair I forgot all about that."

"You wanna know something funny? I got so worked up about you being late that I also forgot about our reservation, guess I'll have to schedule for another day, hehe," Poppy admitted with a sheepish giggle.

"Guess those plans are out the window aren't they?"

The thunder crashed again, reminding them of the scene outside. 

Poppy clicked her tounge. "Guess we're not leaving anytime soon."

"Guess not."

Poppy took Barb's hands in her own and smirked. "Why don't I microwave up a pizza and then we can spend some time watching a movie, maybe cuddle a little bit."

"Oh, Miss Poppy," Barb drawled in a fake and dramatic accent, "You? Cuddling with a gal like me? Why, what would the neighbors think?"

Poppy giggled and replied in a similar ridiculous accent, "Oh but Miss Barb, you know darn well that so long as I have you, I could never care what the neighbors think!"

The girls laughed as Barb pulled Poppy in close to her. "I love you," she breathed, pressing a chaste, warm kiss to Poppy's lips. 

As Barb pulled away, Poppy replied, "What a coincidence, I love you too Barb."

Overcome with love, Barb picked her up again and spun around with her some more, their joyous giggles echoing through the otherwise empty house.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how to end this so i guess this is a good spot. Also I wrote this in like 5 hours instead of working on my next longer fic bc procrastination is my passion i guess. regardless I hope Y'all enjoyed and I will see you next time.
> 
> -CC


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